“The words were not complete, I can’t infer anything meaningful.” Huang Rong laughed “Really?”
Guo Jing knew he could not have understood it on his own, so he quickly said, “Rong-er, you must know it, quick, tell me.” Huang Rong wrote the lines of words and said, “The first line had the word Eagle Shooting Hero
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‘Wu’ missing, so it should be ‘Wu Mu Yi Shu’ (Yue Fei’s War Strategies Manual ‘武穆遗书’). I couldn’t have guessed the 2nd line if not for that old man, so it should be either ‘Mountain’ or
‘Peak’.” She recited the lines, “Wu Mu Yi She, Zhai Tie Zhang Shan (The manual’s at the Iron Palm Mountain).” Guo Jing clapped and exclaimed, “Yes! Let’s go! The Iron Palm Sect is corroborating with the Jin troops – they’d surely hand the manual to Wanyan Hong Lie. What’s next?” Huang Rong laughed, “That old man said the mountain is shaped like a palm, and the 3rd line is ‘Zhong Zhi Feng Xia’ (under the peak of the middle finger).” Guo Jing said excitedly, “Yes, Yes Rong-er, you’re brilliant! The 4th line!” Huang Rong said, “I’m not sure. Di er…jie’ (The 2nd … ).”
She tossed her hair in the wind, saying. “ I give up. We’ll talk when we get there.”
They rode towards the place described and reached it within a day. They asked around but everybody shook their heads. They were disappointed and put up at an inn. Huang Rong asked the waiter but he did not mention anything relevant. Huang Rong said, “This place is boring. Is there anything worth seeing?” The waiter could not resist and said, “There’s this Monkey’s Claw Mountain – the scenery is unparalleled.” Huang Rong asked, “Where is that?” The waiter did not reply but instead said, “Never mind,” and walked out.
Huang Rong chased him and pulled him back and placed a silver ingot on the table, saying, “Tell me more and this is yours.” The waiter gently touched the ingot and said, “You are sure about this?”
Huang Rong nodded with a smile. The waiter said in a low voice, “I’ll talk, but you must not go.
That place is reputed to be inhabited by beasts and demons. Whoever goes within 5 miles of the mountain can dream of coming back alive.” The couple nodded. Huang Rong said, “The mountain has 5 peaks shaped like a monkey’s hand, isn’t it?” The waiter exclaimed, “Yes! So you already knew! I didn’t say that. But there’s something strange about the mountain.” Guo Jing asked,
“What?” He replied, “The mountain being shaped like a hand isn’t really strange, what’s strange is that every ‘finger’ on the mountain has 3 segments, just like our fingers.” Huang Rong jumped up, shouting, “The 2nd segment, the 2nd segment!” Guo Jing yelled happily, “Correct! Precisely!” The waiter did not know what was going on and starred at the couple blankly. Huang Rong asked for more details and handed him the silver. The waiter left happily.
Huang Rong stood up and said, “Brother Jing, Let’s go.” Guo Jing said, “It’s less than 30km from here. We can use the Red Horse to rush there now, and we can pay them a visit tomorrow morning.”
Huang Rong laughed, “What visit? Steal the book.” Guo Jing exclaimed, “Yes! I’m so dense, I didn’t think of that.” They did not want to arouse any attention so they left through the window and galloped southeast. The waist-length grass hindered their movement, but when they were 20km away, they saw the 5-peak mountain in the distance. Guo Jing excitedly said, “The mountain looks exactly like the painting, see the pine trees at the summit?” Huang Rong laughed, “We’re short of a general up there. Brother Jing, go up and display your sword skills.” Guo Jing laughed, “But I’m not a general.” Huang Rong replied, “Isn’t that easy? Eventually Genghis Khan…” Her words trailed off. Guo Jing knew what she meant and turned his head away, not daring to face her.
They left their horse at the foot of the mountain and utilized their Qinggong to scale the mountain.
After many twists and turns, they came to a thick clump of pine trees. They stopped to discuss if they should continue upwards or investigate the clump of trees when they saw a faint light among the trees. They exchanged hand signs and crept stealthily towards the light. Suddenly, there was a whoosh and two black-clad armed men jumped up and blocked the road. Huang Rong thought, “If we fight them, it would be difficult to steal the book.” She had an idea and took out Qiu Qian Ren’s Iron Palm token and showed them wordlessly. When the two men saw it, they were shocked and quickly bowed and stepped aside. Huang Rong swiftly drew her bamboo stick and struck their
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accupoints then kicked them into the tall grass. She crept closer and saw a large stone house with two boxes on the left and right of the entrance. In the center, a large urn was burning on a stove and the burning smell was easily detectable. Two young attendants stood on each side of the stove, one of them stirring the mixture inside with an iron ladle. From the sizzling sound, it was clear that the urn contained iron filings. An old man sat close by, breathing deeply – it was Qiu Qian Ren. After a while, he lifted his palms then stood up suddenly and struck his palms into the urn. Qiu Qian Ren practiced on the burning iron filings for a while then struck towards a cloth sack suspended above.
The palm hit the sack with a solid slap, yet the sack did not even move.
Guo Jing was secretly shocked, thinking, “This cloth sack is not supported by anything, yet it didn’t move. His palm skill must be extremely good.” Huang Rong, however felt that it must be a trick; if she wanted to steal the book first, she would have said so earlier. He struck his palms into the urn then struck the cloth sack again, repeating this process several times. Huang Rong just could not figure out how he did this trick and thought, “If 2nd Master were here, he’d surely guess it. I’m not as smart as he is.” They peeped into the adjacent room and had another shock. Inside, a male and female seated together – it was Yang Kang and Mu Nian Ci. Both Guo Jing and Huang Rong wondered, “How did Sister Mu get here?” They heard Yang Kang’s sweet and flattering words and discovered that he was trying to trick her into marriage earlier. Mu Nian Ci, however, insisted that he kill Wanyan Hong Lie first before going into a relationship. Yang Kang said, “My dear, how could you be so short-sighted?” Mu Nian Ci queried curiously, “How so?” Yang Kang said, “Yes!
Wanyan Hong Lie is surrounded by many bodyguards. Based on just myself alone, how could I succeed? If you marry me, I could pretend to take you to visit your in-laws. With the two of us, our chances are naturally better.” Mu Nian Ci felt that this made sense, so she remained silent. Yang Kang saw that she was willing and so he held her hand and gently stroke it, then stretched his hand to hug her waist. Huang Rong could not take it and wanted to step forward and expose his plan when she heard an old rasping voice behind her, “Who dares trespass my mountain?” The couple turned around and saw Qiu Qian Ren’s face glowing under the moonlight. Though he must have been playing a trick, his menacing gaze showed that he should not be trifled with. Huang Rong was startled, then thought, “He’s on his own mountain now, of course he’d try to put on airs. Yup, he already discovered our presence earlier on, so he deliberately set this up for us, isn’t it?” She laughed, “Old Qiu, we are here on your invitation. Have you forgotten the 7 –day appointment?”
Qiu Qian Ren snapped, “What appointment? Rubbish!” Huang Rong laughed, “Hmm, how could you forget it so soon? Is your stomach upset gone yet? If not, you should consult a physician before exchanging blows with me, to prevent … hehehe!” Qiu Qian Ren did not respond but launched both palms towards Huang Rong’s shoulder fiercely. She giggled and ignored his strike, wanting to use her Soft Armour to pierce his palms. Just then Guo Jing exclaimed, “Get away!” She felt a guest of wind and knew Guo Jing tried to intercept him but felt a heavy blow smashing right into her. She fell backwards and everything went black.
Qiu Qian Ren felt a shock to his palms as they bled profusely. He was shocked and furious when he saw Guo Jing’s palms flying to him, so he quickly retracted his palms and met Guo Jing’s strike.
Their palms met with a smack and both retreated three steps. Qiu Qian Ren stood firmly while Guo Jing stumbled, which clearly showed the difference between their palm strengths. The previous night when they exchanged blows, Guo Jing appeared to be on par only because he used the Big Dipper Formation. Guo Jing was concerned about Huang Rong, so he withdrew from the battle and hugged her up to go, but he heard the wind gust from behind – he was being attacked again. Guo Jing struck his right hand backwards without turning around, using the move [Dragon Displays Its Tail] – this was a special move designed to save lives, and now when he was in great danger, the power of the move was increased. Qiu Qian Ren hit his palms and felt his body go slightly numb.